Month: November 2019

I hope you have plenty to be thankful this week. Maybe you and your family will make a list.

Do you know the traditional turkey dinner will cost the same as last year? The government estimates that a family of 10 can eat a hearty meal for $50.

How about other bargains in 2019?  Two are milk and natural gas.

You may not make a connection between a Holstein cow and a gas well, but I’ll give you one. Thanks to genetics for milk cows and technology for gas production, we are saving a bundle. We get more milk from fewer cows at less cost. Unfortunately we have lost a lot of dairy farms that had 50 to 500 cows. Big farms are getting bigger. For those milk producers who had to sell their herds or went bankrupt, these last few years have been mighty rough.

For natural gas and oil production, technology has saved Americans over a Trillion dollars in ten years. Picture this example: on 5 acres of ground, 4 wells drilled about a mile deep, then turned horizontally to extend 3 or 4 miles (yes, miles) in multiple directions. Hydraulic fracturing, which has been around more than 60 years, releases more product from those horizontal wells. That’s why families are saving a few thousand dollars a year on heating, electricity, gasoline, and through lower prices for products we buy that are manufactured and transported. Like many small dairy farmers, some workers in gas, oil and coal production have lost jobs because of those lower prices.

Of course, you may live in a state that does not believe in drilling technology and pipelines so you can only dream of the savings across the state line. But that’s politics and I promised myself to avoid politics during this week of Thanksgiving.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Thanksgiving Day. In the days of its founders they were willing to give thanks for mighty little, for mighty little was all they expected. But now neither government or nature can give enough but what we think it’s too little. Those old boys in the Fall of the year, if they could gather in a few pumpkins, potatoes and some corn for the winter, they was in a thanking mood. But if we can’t gather in a new Buick, a new radio, a tuxedo and some government relief, why we feel like the world is agin us.” DT #2594, Nov. 28, 1934

Did you study Latin in school? No one else has either lately.

Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi finally gave up trying to translate Latin to American voters and instead are speaking plain English: “President Trump needs to be impeached because he committed BRIBERY!”

Apparently someone on the House Intel Committee read the Constitution (probably for the first time) and saw that a President can be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Nowhere does it say quid pro quo. In case you’re wondering, I’m sure James Madison and Thomas Jefferson knew some Latin, but they were smart enough to keep it out of the Constitution.

Even the word bribery confused a few Congressmen. The writers of the Constitution meant that a President could be impeached if he accepted a bribe to take some official action. The idea of a President bribing a country never came up because in George Washington’s day no president had any excess cash. And neither did Hamilton’s Treasury.

Speaking of excess cash, Elizabeth Warren decided that Billionaires have enough extra cash lying around to pay for all the grandiose plans she has promised. She calculated that she can convince a hundred million voters that all their wants and wishes can be paid for by a few thousand Billionaires.

Clearly, Elizabeth Warren loves Billionaires. Only problem is if she is President for 4 years, there won’t be any Billionaires left. Then to get re-elected in 2024 she will promise that Millionaires can pay for all our wants and wishes.

Now, if that all works out for the Democrats, in 2028 the next bright star, candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will guarantee that, since we cleaned out all our Billionaires and Millionaires, our four hundred million poor and undernourished citizens and immigrants can live off our surviving Thousandaires.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Poor Democrats, I love ’em. I guess it’s because some are so dumb. Now they are dying to scare up an issue by trying to discredit Mr. Hoover, because some lobbyist wrote a letter saying that he knew President Hoover’s secretary, and that the secretary was very partial to Cuban sugar in his coffee in the morning, and that in view of this dastardly plot Mr. Hoover should really be impeached. Then they wonder why they don’t get anywhere.” DT #1064, Dec. 23, 1929

“I don’t suppose [there is] the most unemployed or the hungriest man in America [that hasn’t] contributed in some way to the wealth of every millionaire in America.” Radio, Oct. 18, 1931

“And on [accumulated wealth] of say $10  million, why  the  government  will  take  about 90 percent of it. And then on [wealth] of a 100 million, 200 million, a billion, and like that, well, the government just takes all of that.” Radio, April 28, 1935 (Note: Will was talking about estate taxes. I took the liberty of replacing estate with wealth.)

I was in Claremore, Oklahoma last weekend celebrating “my” 140^th birthday. Even Google.com got in on the celebration all day November 4.

Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry (great-granddaughter) was there as usual. Joel McCrea (represented by grandson Wyatt McCrea) and Barry Corbin received major awards from the Memorial Museum. I asked Barry Corbin how many movies he has made. He said, “Oh, between 200 and 300, starting with Urban Cowboy.”  He’s no stranger to television either, including starring in Northern Exposure.

The Oklahoma Legislature has a bill that would rename part of historic U.S. Route 66 for President Trump. Now I don’t want to sound egotistical but that road already has a name: the Will Rogers Highway. Maybe the Legislature can find an anonymous stretch of highway out in the panhandle and name it the Trump Road.

Did you ever hear a preacher deliver a sermon based on Route 66? You may know that Route 66 goes right through downtown Claremore. Rev. Ray Crawford at the First United Methodist Church figured out a way to tie the 22^nd Chapter of 1 Chronicles, which is about David preparing resources to leave for his son Solomon, to kind of a marathon relay race the whole length of Route 66. Personally, if I had to be in a relay race, I would run my part on horseback. Well, Dr. Crawford said the relay is more about time (years) rather than distance. We need to pass the faith and our resources to the ones following along behind us.

I think that’s a great idea even if you’re not a Methodist. What we do with what we have is a powerful measure of who we are. As two examples, I think Jennifer Rogers and Wyatt McCrea have been well prepared and accepted the baton passed down from their famous ancestors.

I heard that CNN completed some essential investigative reporting on President Trump’s tweets. CNN’s team of journalists unearthed 186 misspelled words in three years of Trump tweets.

Lord, I’m glad CNN wasn’t around when I was writing daily and weekly newspaper articles in the 1920s and 30s. English teachers was the only ones back then concerned about my lack of interest in proper grammar and spelling. Everybody else that could read understood what I aimed to say except mayby the professors at Harvard.

Tomorrow is Armistice Day, November 11, a day to honor our military and have a parade. They changed the name to Veterans Day, but were practically forced to keep it on Nov. 11, even when it’s not a Monday. We’re also celebrating the end of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago. You’ll remember President Reagan saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And he did.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Been reading editorials on President Coolidge’s armament speech. Several papers have asked, ‘What would Europe do if we were in difficulties and needed help?’ (My) reply to those inquiries: Europe would hold a celebration.” DT #717, Nov. 14, 1928

“If we really want to honor our (veterans), why don’t we let THEM sit in the reviewing stands and make the people march by?”  WA #36, Aug. 19, 1923

[I received this nice compliment: “Randall Reeder really does a nice job –I heard it said when a person dies ,he is soon forgotten –not in Will’s case ! Thank you very much!”   Yes, we try to keep Will alive.]